Vitales

by Greg Bear

Barcelona. 18 cm. 474 p. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial ilustrada. Colección 'Byblos', numero coleccion(728/1). Bear, Greg 1951-. Traducción, Pedro Jorge Romero. Traducción Vitals. Byblos (Serie). 728/1 .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8466618074

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Greg Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio, and Darwin’s Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.

(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)

Reviews

[Kevin Kuhn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg Bear has won multiple Hugos and Nebulas. He published this book in 2002. I think it’s my fourth or fifth book by Bear. For some reason, after reading the inside flap, I believed that this book would follow a man’s search for immortality and involve sinister forces attempting to steal or prevent his achievement of life everlasting. I thought it would be a thriller where the immortality provided the speculative fiction and the rest would be a traditional cloak and dagger story. I was wrong. I should have known better; Greg Bear does not hold back. He takes his books way past any traditional plot.

I was partially on the right track. Hal Cousins is nearing a breakthrough in his quest for immortality. And, sure enough, sinister forces are preventing his progress. But the plot gets far more creative and weirder from there. At first, I was annoyed with some techniques and key plot points. We switch character perspective five different times. I found that annoying but not a deal breaker. More frustrating, the aforementioned sinister forces employ an unusual technique to attempt to murder Hal and other good guys. For a group that exerts so much control and power, why not just poison, or shoot, or stab our heroes? Why try again and again with a highly ineffective technique that fails over and over again. So, from my perspective, there is a bit of ‘check your brain at the door’ in terms of the plot. However, balance that with several positives. The plot is extremely complex. We are setup to believe some characters are chasing delusional conspiracy theories, only to learn the truth is much stranger than the delusions. The plot spirals deeper and deeper until everything we know is called into question. There are some surprising twists and turns. And the tension and conflict never lets up. I also really enjoyed the occasional biotech science that Bear weaves into the story. He also provides some talented insights in the quest for immortality and who really controls humanity. However, I was let down with the ending, a continuously rising story line ends with a somewhat ambiguous whimper.

In the end, I did enjoy this story, with the positives outweighing the negatives (bad guys that are nearly all powerful, but incredibly incompetent at the same time). A speculative, biotech, conspiracy laden, edge of the seat thriller that holds up eighteen years after it was published. Four stars.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Luces y sombras, horror e intriga, ritmo y sobrepeso.-

Género. Ciencia ficción (como excusa, no como motor).

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Vitales (publicación original: Vitals, 2001) nos presenta a Hal Cousins, un científico centrado en la investigación sobre cómo interrumpir los procesos de envejecimiento que consigue financiación para continuar su proyecto por parte de un multimillonario. La muerte de su hermano gemelo, que trabaja en la misma línea de estudio por caminos distintos, no es la única de científicos que trabajan en ese campo y será el comienzo del descenso de Hal hacia la locura, algo que parece inducido de alguna manera inexplicable.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leído en 2004.
7/10. Media de los 5 libros leídos del autor : 6/10.
Otro representante de la CF Hard, una de las figuras de los 80. Tiene varios Nébula y Hugo. De los que he leído me quedo con esta de“Vitales” o con “Marte se mueve” (la galardonada “Reina de los ángeles”, toda vuestra, me pareció un bodrio).

Aquí nos encontramos con seres humanos muy longevos, ¿gracias a un proyecto de la II Guerra Mundial?
Biotecnología y misterios que me gustaron pero con momentos flojos que la dejaron en ese pasable 7/10.

[Milele · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a thriller set in a slightly more capable present-day setting. The best part of the book was recognizing one location after another in Seattle, Palo Alto and Berkeley. The book sets and keeps a fast pace.

***Spoiler alert*** now as I talk about what I didn't like. It became horribly grating as each female character turned out to be one dimensional and untrustworthy. Sure, the book is about biologically induced paranoia and unreliable behavior, so there's some plot justification for everybody being untrustworthy, but the female characters were really bad. The worst was the wife of Rob Cousins, who, after Rob's death seeks out Rob's twin Hal, for the same reasons she initially married Rob: She's a beautiful spy! who can biologically control men!! via sex!!! I mean, really. When the bad guys can control everybody by spritzing their food or just the air they breathe, why create this artificial seductress and send her out with her mind-control skin cream which she rubs on her body before rubbing her body all over her target? Really? That is a paranoid wet-dream, not a plot.

After that, I perfunctorily finished the book, but didn't really enjoy it any more. I can't tell if the cruise ship scenes and the ending were truly terrible or if I'd just lost all interest in the plot and characters.

[Tomislav · Rating 2 out of 5]

First read – 10 February 2008 - **. It's impossible to give any kind of plot summary of this book, that does not make spoilers, so I won't try. All I will say, is that it involves the search for biologically-based immortality, and conspiracies to stop and/or control that research. I feel the book, while a page-turner, would have been better served if Bear had tamed down the rollercoaster a notch (as he does more recently in Quantico). He drives the plot through a long sequence of bizarre and deadly events, only some of which can be figured out later, until the main character becomes bewildered to a Kafka-esque degree.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this one, Greg Bear has kind of abandoned the ideas for the thrill of the chase. It's much more technothriller than science fiction, although I suppose the science is enough out there it could sort of qualify. But it's the speed at which everything happens, the plot racing by too fast for there to be real consideration of the ideas, that I find a pity. I know he can do better, and I'd much prefer a novel of ideas.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Gendou · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book, bacteria cause aging and are used for mind control!
This is why I hate Greg Bear: he perverts science fiction.
He's forcing nature to fit in his weirdo fantasy world.
This makes for especially poor science fiction.
The end is confusing and vague.

Why do I punish myself by reading Greg Bear's books?

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a huge fan of Greg Bear's various wonders of the universe, but I found this to be very dull and disappointing. I love science fiction that is grounded in biology, and Greg Bear has some fantastic biology-driven novels: Blood Music is my favorite, but see also Darwin's Radio, Legacy, and Hull Zero Three. Even in books that aren't primarily premised in biology, Greg Bear's biological references are usually well crafted and imaginative, and confer richness to the world of the book as well as depth to the plot. The galactic ecology described in The Forge of God, the living cities in Strength of Stones, and the transformed humans in Queen of Angels or Eon, may not be fully developed or very unique ideas, but at least they are fun to imagine and think about.

Vitals is not fun to think about. Unfortunately its central science fictional concepts, concerning microbial information transmission and immortality, seemed uninteresting and perhaps better explored by Greg Bear himself in some of his other books. In Blood Music, a plague of engineered microbes unfolds into the coldly beautiful destruction/transcendence of humanity, and in Slant, bacteria are the computational processors in a powerful organic artificial intelligence. Where does Vitals take you, with its mind-control bacteria and immortality intrigue? To a cruise-ship full of weirdos. Blah. Like the similarly uninspiring Dead Lines,Vitals just seems small in comparison to many of Greg Bear's other works, so I didn't care for it.

[K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plot summary: A bunch of people are searching for the secret to...not immortality, but living for a REALLY long time...in bacteria. Only then there's a big conspiracy, and they're running for their lives.

Thoughts: Look, it sounds really interesting. And when it starts with being in a mini-sub heading for the bottom of the ocean, it SEEMS really interesting. But then random people started going crazy, and they were on the run, and there was this whole 20th century Russian history thing going on, and I just couldn't cope any more. There didn't seem to be anything tying the plot together, it was just a jumble of topics that would periodically overlap.

Made it as far as page 183 and couldn't take it any more. DNF.

[Mark Schomburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to stomach all the poor reviews of Greg Bear, especially for this book which is really great. I've found his angle on science fiction to be acutely amazing and convincing; probably closer to reality than most readers will admit. I guess he is just way over the heads of readers of typical sci-fi scenarios. With Bear, the science is not just a dumb prop or setting to write more crap, it's actually where the crux of the whole plot is centered. The fantasy is in thinking that the science just might be true - or pretty close to being true - might as well be true, since we live in a world of unknowns just as great. I pity the reader who finds these scenarios unbelievable or too fantastic.

[Lowed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's good. What disheartened me was how Bear tried to put in so many great ideas, but left them behind as he tried to shift from being a really-good-sci-fi-book to a lousy-thriller-trash.

Still, this will not hinder me from picking up his other works.

[Spencer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked the book because I had heard the author was good. While the style was decent, and the readability good, the story itself was poor. It had a decent core premise, the engineering of bacterial strains released through the population which could later be triggered. Unfortunately, it failed to stop or at least reign itself in somewhere within the realm of possibility, and instead went completely off the deep end.

If the writer had managed to at least try to tie together the loose ends at the end of the book, I might have at least been able to give him two stars. Instead, he lets them accumulate at an alarming rate, only to leave you completely hanging in nearly every regard.

I will give at least one more of his books a try, based on the readability shown here, but I cannot recommend this particular book.

[Pamelafy · Rating 1 out of 5]

La historia es confusa, mal contada y absurda. Los personajes son poco desarrollados y poco creíbles. Básicamente se trata de un científico que quiere estudiar la prolongación de la vida pero se ve involucrado en una conspiración internacional para controlar la mente con bacterias. Por ahí aparece Stalin y una mina que contagia las bacterias controladoras de mente a través de la vagina

[Kristin Cicciarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book 5.5 stars I would. It's a lot like Darwin's radio but less dense. It has the same technomedical sci-fi slant but you could easily finish it in a few days.

Instead of discussing human evolution, Bear using genetics as a weapon for espionage and a great freaking story.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Passed the fifty page rule. Failed the hundred page rule.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, I didnt get as far as finishing this book. While the idea was ok in theory, I found the execution dull and lacking in real emotion.

[John Inman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read.

[Eric Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a thriller about the possibility of immortality and a worldwide conspiracy involving bacteria modifications. The idea is cool but wow this book is just not entertaining. The characters are flat, the pacing is odd…and honestly I just ended up not caring about the book 2/3 of the way through. Ending wasn’t satisfying either. I like this author but not this book.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Greg bear, and although this is okay, it is not one I would read twice.

More of a bio-medical spec fic thriller, it didn't click any of my buttons. And first person doesn't do it for me anymore. (yet I keep picking 1st person novels. Sigh).

So it's okay. Not earth shattering.

[Michael Pryor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tense, thrilling, tapered.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not totally sure about this one, which is a sign that the author has in fact successfully communicated his concern over the subject matter to me. Research into prolonging human life is an ethical minefield and Bear has, with this mixture of fascinating biological facts, conspiracy, espionage and elitism highlighted these issues. I have always firmly believed that unless we quickly get our population under control voluntarily, which seems highly unlikely (given the inability of a massive proportion of American voters to recognise what is in their own self interest, despite a cartoon villian selling them snake oil and treating them worse than lab rats,) then nature will do it for us.
The book overall started with great promise, drew me in and then proceeded to confuse the hell out of me. I'm getting on so my concentration is no longer as good as it was, but I'm usually very tolerant of confusing perspectives and time jumps. This time, like the protagonist , by the end I was totally lost and eventually decided I will never know what really happened. It doesn't bother me too much though...it lost a star but it scared the pants off me and I reckon will provoke some future speculation about the wisdom of allowing a society to be run by billionaires. We seem to be playing with fire again.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A past paced thriller about ... Bacteria!! 🦠

Normally, cutting edge sci-fi that's 20+ years old doesn't age well. And there are certainly some passages describing women that... Oof.

All that being said, the concepts of this book feel even more relevant today, where the gut brain connection is front and center. Wellness influencers won't shut up about our microbiome, and this book sees how it can be weaponized against us all.

[Guru · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel starts brilliantly - with a young scientist/entrepreneur searching for specific bacterial bodies thousands of feet below the sea level in a submersible. The scientist (Hal Cousins) is looking for ways to arrest ageing by studying the bacterial colonies that are likely to be the earliest type of organisms on Earth. The deep sea exploration goes awry as the submersible pilot has some kind of mental breakdown and tries to kill Hal. It turns out that on the mother ship, there was a similar incident with a scientist just flipped and killed people.
Hal survives all this but loses his investors and is suddenly left with nothing. His twin brother, Rob, who was also working on the same research, is murdered. A deranged white supremacist conspiracy theorist called Rudy Banning approaches Hal and claims he knew Rob well. Then it turns out that someone doesn't want Hal and Rob's research from every surfacing.
The basic theory here is that at some point in evolution, bacteria started taking charge of all life treating the more complex organisms as living hosts. Hal's theory is if we have some way of controlling the bacteria, we can slow cell degeneration and extend life. Meanwhile, it turns out that there is an organization called "Silk" (Soviet-era secret science group that was ostensibly researching on creating artificial silk) that wants the Cousins' research to be suppressed. This is because they discovered it back in Stalin day and since then they have been injecting some specific Microbes in pretty much everyone's bodies via food and drink. With these microbes, they can "control" people via a catalyst (the book called this getting "tagged").

If this was my first Greg Bear novel, it would probably be my last one. The plot is incoherent and very inconsistent. The characters are lazily etched. While the science pieces are very intriguing, the thriller plot falls flat on its face. It appears that Bear stopped trying after a while.
However, this was not my first Bear novel, so I know there is more than what is immediately obvious. The science behind Bacterial Intelligence and microbial cooperation is very fascinating.
Not Bear's greatest work and it is a drag to read, but a couple of good ideas in there.

[Liam Proven]

This is an odd one. Someone mentioned it on FB, I checked and had it on the shelf -- but zero recollection of having ever read it.

I did some digging, including here, and found a passing mention of immortality treatments derived from submarine bacteria (wut?) and then of Lake Baikal... and it clicked.

They were trying to talk about xenophyophores. This is the book that told me about xenophyophores. They are fascinating, if very obscure organisms: one of the biggest single-celled organisms in the world. They are giant intertwined balls of folded cytoplasm, shielded and housed in structures that they build from their own fæces. (Nice, huh?) They can't really move, so they sit around on the floor of the ocean, very deep down on the abyssal plains, where little else lives so they are safe. There are almost no fish down there, and what animals do live down there, such as sea cucumbers, are soft and squishy and slow-moving, so they can't bump into the fragile xenophyophores and knock them to pieces.

Bear posits xenophyophores on the mud floor of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the biggest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. It's possible -- I don't think anyone's been down there to look.

But apart from introducing me to this fascinating, albeit slightly disgusting poop-covered slimeball of an organism, and hypothesizing a new habitat for them, I remember nothing else about this novel.

Given that some of Bear's other books contain some of the most mind-stretching ideas I've ever encountered in fiction, from the time-travelling asteroid the Thistledown of _Eon_, with its seventh chamber that goes on forever (also introducing me to Ralph Nader), to the schizophrenic artificial intelligence of _Queen of Angel_, driven by sheer loneliness into becoming self-aware (also introducing me to the work of Marvin Minsky), to the "QL thinkers" of _Moving Mars_ and the idea of relocating entire planets by quantum means, Bear is one of the greatest "ideas men" in modern SF. Nobel winner Doris Lessing cited him as an example of a great writer.

This, I'm afraid, is not one of his great works.

[Carl Alves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vitals sets itself up as a novel about a scientist researching how to extend life through the use of certain bacteria, which is an interesting enough premise. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be a complete and utter mess, disappointing in so many ways. Hal Cousins is a scientist who seeks the favor of the super wealthy to fund his projects but things go haywire after his twin brother is murdered and his life begins to crumble around him. Ultimately the story becomes about this ancient scientist who was around in pre World War 2 Soviet Union and discovered bacteria that can mysteriously brainwash people and put them under his control. At least that’s what I think it was about, since it was so all over the place that I’m not even sure.

This novel is so utterly convoluted and hard to follow. It was almost as if the author was intentionally trying to confuse the reader, and after a while it caused me to lose interest. There is absolutely not a shred of believability to the novel. The premise is neat but the mechanics of the plot is groan inducing. The characterization in the novel is weak. There were loose plot points that were never resolved. It was solid for about the first quarter of the book before it became dreadful to read. I kept holding out hope that this novel would right itself and get better but that never came to fruition, and toward the end I just wanted it to be over. This was the first and last book by Greg Bear that I will read.

Carl Alves - author of Reconquest: Mother Earth

[Paul Silver · Rating 1 out of 5]

We follow a scientist who is investigating how bacteria might unlock the secret to eternal life. He gets on the wrong side of a conspiracy to control people's minds using bacteria to make them suggestable.

Unfortunately, the scientist is quite unlikeable, almost all the other characters are completely unlikeable and/or paper thin, and the story is disjointed and dragged out. I almost put it down never to return half way through and the point of view switched to a much more likeable character, so I stayed with it. I shouldn't have bothered.

For a writer of Bear's quality, this was poor, very poor.

[Bill Tyne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don your tinfoil hat and join Greg Bear in this paranoid conspiracy theory thriller. The fact that both the premise and numerous situations that go to make up the book are totally preposterous is not the worst thing about it. The plots are confused and unresolved in such a way as to feel like the author really either couldn't figure out how to resolve things or just couldn't be bothered. This is a long way from Eon, Eternity and even Blood Music, definitely the worst book by Greg Bear I've come across.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book - like all of Greg Bear's. I love how it ties in 20th century history with sci-fi (or is it really fiction?).

Nice pacing, good science to back up what he's writing - definitely a book that is written well and is completely believable.

[Mike S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, a very fast read, as usual a lot of research and real science make the story intriguing.

[Frank R · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was good enough to finish.